Best in Film 2018 I spent a lot of time watching movies this year, just as I did in the streets protesting! I see my role as a critic as sharing with you those creative works which made me feel human, helped me identify with the feelings of others and inspired me to have hope.
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Visions of Vija: A Villager’s Journey
By Stanley Wlodyka Almost 90 years ago, Vija Vetra peeked through a hole in the wall of a dance studio where ballet classes were taught. Who knows which adolescent boy had carved out the peephole, looking to stoke the fire kindled by adolescent hormones, watching the girls plié and rond de jambe their way into
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Mickey: The True Original Exhibition—An Immersive Experience
By Robert Heide As you approach the building at 60 Tenth Avenue between West 14th and 15th Streets in the Northwest corner of Greenwich Village you see a series of old style 1930s super huge painted Mickey’s in his red shorts and big yellow shoes in a variety of poses and facial expressions, wearing sometimes
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Bird of the Year 2018
By Keith Michael As the National Audubon Society wraps up this Year of the Bird 2018—bringing international attention to the plight of countless bird species and the effects of climate change for us all—it is time, once again, here in the West Village, to celebrate our local ecosystem with the 13th Annual Bird of the
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Integral Yoga Natural Foods Closes Doors After 45 Years
By Sarah Dowson Recently hundreds of loyal natural-foods patrons were shocked and heartbroken to learn that Integral Yoga Natural Foods (“IYNF”), at 229 West 13th Street, had closed because of overwhelming competition in the changing retail landscape. IYNF sold organic fruits and vegetables, prepared foods, freshly juiced vegetables, as well as flour, grains, and spices
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Integral Yoga Natural Foods: Some Memories
Having finished my organic red kale the other day, I ambled over to Integral Yoga Natural Foods (“IYNF”) at 227 West 13th St. with the intention of buying another bunch to munch and maybe a few spices too. I felt devastated to see a sign on their door announced they were closing due to “overwhelming
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Robot Travel
By George Capsis Michael Usyk had a show of his artwork in Paris which he attended via Skype—his image displayed on a laptop on a table in the middle of the show. Visitors to the exhibit (if they spoke English) could chat with Michael about his work as he sat in his little apartment in the West Village. Well, this
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Remembrances of The Lost Village: Cornelia Street Café
By Roger Paradiso I remember the Fourth of July festival on Cornelia Street a few years back. Robin Hirsch of the Cornelia Street Café was throwing his annual birthday celebration for his landmark jazz/comedy/poetry club. (To this date as I write this in 2018, he is celebrating his 41st year in business. Number 42 would
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Film Explores Diversity from the Inside Out
A recent study by Business Insider—called by some the largest business news site on the internet—identified the ten most serious problems according to millennials. They include: lack of economic opportunity; safety, security and general wellbeing; education; food and water security; government accountability and transparency; poverty; inequality in terms of income as well as race and
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Holiday Decorations in the West Village
West Village Images by Joel Gordon Other examples can be found on my website www.joelgordon.com. Photo credit © Joel Gordon 2018—All rights reserved.
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The Great Whitney Warhol Show
By Robert Heide The title for the spectacular new Whitney art show is simply Andy Warhol From A to B and Back Again. The chief curator of the show is Donna De Salvo who has assembled a fully comprehensive Warhol art retrospective of more than 350 of his world famous Pop Art originals. Warhol had been turning
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Goodnight Irene, I’ll See You in My Dreams
The Death of Maria Irene Fornes, Genius Greenwich Village Playwright—1930-2018 By John Gilman Maria Irene Fornes, known to her friends and peers as just Irene Fornes, was unpretentious and fun loving, but at heart a serious playwright. For many years Irene lived in a loft-sized apartment filled with books stacked to the ceiling as well
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“The Lost Village” Exposes The Evil Takeover of Greenwich Village by NYU and Large Corporations
By Carol Yost The Lost Village is our very own Greenwich Village: Roger Paradiso’s film chronicles how greed and lust for power have transformed the original, unique character of the Village. (NOTE: This is a revised review after last year’s screening. Now the film is in distribution, and I saw it for the second time
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Remembrances from The Lost Village: Death of The Living Theater
By Roger Paradiso If there is one interview that haunts me from my film The Lost Village it was the one with Judith Malina. Judith and Julian Beck met when she was 17. In 1947 they formed The Living Theater, which was a part of the Village scene in the 1950s and 60s until they
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Autograph Hound
By Alan Perna I was standing on 6th Avenue and 48th Street in front of a rehearsal studio, when I saw a taxi go by. I started running after it. I ran three blocks until it stopped at a light. My mind was racing, my heart pounding, my mouth was dry. I grabbed the door
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Not “The Duck”
By Keith Michael I throw a (small) handful of kibble across the floor. Millie takes up her cue to hit the boards for her famed “corgi kibble dance.” The Prelude: Two rapid spins. Act I: Pick up only one kibble, toss it in the air, pursue (into a far corner if necessary). Act II: Methodically
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Kennedy: Bobby’s Last Crusade, Theatre At St. Clement’s
By Eric Uhlfelder A play remembering the 1968 presidential campaign, how the country has changed and how it hasn’t. Wandering several blocks west of Times Square to an old church might seem an odd place to find a tale about a presidential campaign fifty years on. But this choice of venue to host an escape
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Movie Review: THE LOST VILLAGE
By Bennett Kremen The Lost Village is an alarming documentary that uses engaging interviews and strong visuals to show us the slow death of that unique treasure called Greenwich Village. You’d have to be deaf and blind not to notice that dismayed Villagers everywhere are profoundly baffled by a cancerous disease known as hyper-gentrification. The film is not a nostalgic historic rendering of the Village
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West Village Original: Jenny Tango
By Michael D. Minichiello This month’s West Village Original is artist Jenny Tango, born Florence Exler in Brooklyn in 1926. A visual artist working collaboratively and individually in painting, communications media, artist’s books and comic strips, Tango received both a BA and MA from Brooklyn College. A former educator with a list of both solo
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Upcoming Series: Arabic Speculative Fiction in English Translation
By Anna Boots Three percent: that’s the oft-cited figure of how many books are published in the United States each year in translation from languages other than English. It might be surprising to some people that Arabic is actually the fourth most translated language into English, following French, German and Spanish. This has not always
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Angels belong
By Roberta Curley look what it took for you to uncover their path I won’t gallivant upward not while I’m down here doing stuff like tightening difficult-to-screw-in lightbulbs or whooshing along avenues of the self-interested my plan is to try Daddy, you’d be SO proud your prayers stream in daily I’m striving to budget and
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Andy Warhol: Endangered Species (At the Ukrainian Museum)
By Robert Heide At 222 East 6th Street (just off the Bowery) the ultra-modernistic Ukrainian Museum—which features multiplex galleries and a charming gift shop selling authentic embroidered shirts, dresses, books and oddities from Central Europe—is now presenting a splendid exhibition entitled Andy Warhol: Endangered Species. The ten striking silkscreen prints commissioned by Ronald Feldman (Feldman
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A Visit with Actress and Former Villager Marianne Rendon
By Jane Heil Usyk The last two years, since she left the Village, have been very, very busy for Marianne Rendon. How many young people graduate from college and immediately get a major acting part in a series? And then fill in the gaps in the shooting schedule with featured parts in movies? Marianne did
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Caruso’s Quips
By Charles Caruso Thumbing through an old telephone book can be a melancholy experience. Always put important things in the same place. The majestic grace of a building crane moving slowly across the morning sky. A mot to trouble the mind’s eye. The new chumminess between North and South Korea foreshadows the end of U.S.
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Seven Books for Seven Ages
By Yalini Anne Sampathkumar (nine) Kids like to read and be read to. Some like fiction while others prefer non-fiction. Here are a few book suggestions, one for each age from four to ten. Puff the Magic Dragon by Lenny Lipton and Peter Yarrow (four-year-olds) Puff the Magic Dragon is a sing-along book about a
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Remembrances from The Lost Village: A Series of Stories About Greenwich Village
By Roger Paradiso After a screening of my film The Lost Village at the Cinema Village in April of 2017, I walked to the front of the screen to begin a question and answer period with the audience. Just as I got stationed, a kind and gentle man jumped out of his seat, presumably to
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Graffiti Art and HipHop Architecture
By Brian J. Pape, AIA There is a keenly watched legal battle being waged over creative expression, as noted in WestView News March and April 2018 articles by Catherine Revland, The 5Pointz Decision. The Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990 (VARA) has been litigated in a jury trial for the first time, ending February 2018 with
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Yes, Virginia…
By Keith Michael …there is a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. How do I know this? Because I’m looking at one right now “doing its sapsucker thing” on the trunk of a ginkgo tree at the end of my block. But I can’t “prove” that I’m seeing one, because every time I raise my camera to try to
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USPS Stamp
September was all Westbeth all the time! The United States Postal Service unveiled the latest commemorative stamp in their Music Icons series on September 7th. The stamp features a photograph of John Lennon taken by rock n’ roll photographer and Westbeth resident Bob Gruen. Other residents fondly recalled days gone by when it wasn’t out of
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The Poetry Jukebox
By Carol Yost I kept wondering what the heck that odd yellow pipe, seemingly coming up out of the sidewalk, on Ruth E Wittenberg Plaza (the triangular traffic island at 6th Avenue and Greenwich Avenue, across from the garden by the Jefferson Market Library), was all about, but I just kept walking by. What I
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Westbeth Honors Merce Cunningham
HONORING A LEGEND: On September 20th, a ceremony honoring Merce Cunningham took place at Westbeth Artists Housing. Cunningham occupied the 11th floor of the former Bell Laboratories building for decades, choreographing over 80 dances during his time there. In attendance was world-renowned dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov, who recalled fondly the countless hours he spent at Westbeth bringing
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Mickey Mouse Turns 90
By Robert Heide MICKEY FOR PRESIDENT: On November 18, 1928, the black and white Walt Disney “talking” cartoon Steamboat Willie opened at the Colony Theater in New York. Although there had been other cartoon stars that preceded Mickey, such as Felix “the Cat,” it was the Mouse who took the spotlight back then and forevermore.
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Take Five: Max Dolgin Has Got It From Here
By Stanley Wlodyka Last month’s Westbeth Gallery show “A Diamond Jubilee” featured seven artists over 75 years of age who exhibited a wide variety of artwork: masks, puppets, paintings, photographs, and even politically charged embroidery. Judy Lawne, a photographer who came up with the idea for the show, wanted the opening to live up to
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Starmaker—The Interview Covers
By John Gilman It’s a time-honored tradition for writers to have a big kick off “launch” for their books—maybe a book-signing, a cocktail party, or an exhibit. In the case of Rizzoli’s Richard Bernstein: Starmaker—Andy Warhol’s Cover Artist, published last month, it was extravagantly all three. Kicking off New York’s Fashion Week, an opening night
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Jim Fouratt’s REEL DEAL: Movies That Matter
OCTOBER 2018 October is New York Film Festival month. The festival has just begun as you read this. As soon as director Kent Jones announced this year’s programming a collective sigh of relief was heard from critics and NYC film lovers all over town. This year NYFF turns away from premiering major Hollywood studio releases
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Jim Fouratt’s REEL DEAL: Movies That Matter
Awards season has arrived! A deluge of quality films will fall almost daily between September 1st and December 31st. In order to qualify for consideration of an Oscar, a film must run one week in New York City and Los Angeles. So you could buckle yourself into a theater seat for the next three months
